Apparatus for manufacturing screw sticks



Jan. 6, 1942. w. H. URE

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING SCREW STICKS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR I U .A'ITORNEiS WILLIAM H. URE

Filed Nov. 28, 1939 Jan. 6, 1942. w. H. URE

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING SCREW STICKS Filed Nov. 28, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Wu H I WILLIAM H. URE' INVENTOR v v (ITTORNEYS Patented Jan. 6, 1942 UNITED STATE s PATENT: OFFICE 2,269,168 APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING SCREW STICK Application November 28, 1939, Serial No. 306,506

3 Claims. (Cl. 29-52) This application relates to a machine for manufacturing a stick of screws which may conv sist of an integral metal stick composed of .a plurality of screws each having a head, a threaded shank and a neck connecting one screw to the next adjacent screw.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a machine for manufacturing such screw sticks in which the sticks may be made of a predetermined length or number of integrally connected screws. Another object of my invention is to provide a machine for manufacturing screw sticks, in which the individual screws may be of small size and in which threads may be accurately formed between pairs of connected screw heads. Another object of my invention is to provide a machine which may be automatically operated to produce integrally connected screws in the form of screw sticks, and other objects will appear from the following specification, the" novel features being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

Coming now to the drawings wherein like reference characters denote like parts throughout:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed in accordancewith andembodying a preferred form of my invention for manufacturing screw sticks.

Fig-2 is an end elevation, partially in section, through the machine shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail, partially in section, showing the screw/blank formscrews which are considerably smaller than the screws shown in the accompanying drawings, since these small screws are ordinarily the most difficult screwsto make in stick form. Accordingly, I have shown in the drawings the screws in an enlarged form with respect to the machine which manufactures them and have, in a number of views, shown the screws on an exaggerated scale. It will be understood, of course, that the same machine can be used for screws of widely different size and type and the dimensional features which may be mentioned later in the specification are to be understood to be by way of illustration only and not as a limitation.

Referring to Fig. 1, the screw machine may include a base I, mounted on suitable legs 2, and having a hollow spindle 3, which may be operated from a suitable source of power. As is common in screw machines, such as the wellknown Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company screw machine, the work spindle 3 contains work advancing and clutching mechanisms by'which rod stock R may-be intermittently advanced one step at a time. Since this mechanism is well known, it need not be further described herein.

The rod stock R, in the present embodiment of my invention, ishexagonal stock because the resulting heads H of the screw stick S, as shown in Fig. 9, are vpreferably of hexagonalshape.

0 As indicated in Fig. 3, the rod stock R may be ing and threading toolsand their relationship "to the screw stick in the process, of manufacture.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary section on line 4'4 of Fig. 3, but omitting the screw blanking tool and showing a cut-off tool.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the screw-threading tool. I

Fig. 6 is an end elevation of the screw-threading tool.-

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary side elevation, partially in section, of the reduction gearing which operates the cut-off.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary detail section of a part of the cut-off reduction gearing and is taken on line 88 of Fig. 7.

- Fig. 9 is a side elevation of a typical screw stick which can be made by my improved method 50 After blanking the screw, the 'threadis rolled onto the shank S by means of the tool shown in and machine. I

It is pointed out that in applicants drawings, the size of the screws composing a screw stick advanced to and may be held by a chuck 5 which is carried by the work spindle 3, so that the rod R may be rapidly rotated.

While the stock is being rotated, a shaping tool 6 is moved in the directionshown by the arrow to blank out the screw blank, the tool "having a curved face I for shaping one side of the screw head H, a curved notching edge 8 for shaping the neck N, a flat surface 9 for shaping the screwshank S and a projecting edge ID for shaping the opposite side of the screw head H.

This tool, as indicated in Fig. 2, may be fixedly attached to a bracket l2, carried by the slide l3 and including a rack l4 and gear segment 5 l5, which, through the bell crank lever l6, pivcan be varied between quite wide limits, but I am particularly interested in providing sticks of oted at I1 and the roller l8 bearing on the cam l9, causes the tool to be advanced to blank out the screw and then to move back to its initial position'under the impulse of a spring 20.

Figs. 5 and 6.- v The threading tool, designated broadly as 2t, consists of two relatively adjustabl arms 22 and 23, each carrying a threaded wheel 24 and 25. These wheels are mounted to rotate freely on shafts 26 and 21, and these shafts may be in the form of studs, as shown at 28, in Fig. 3. The separation between these rollers may be adjusted by the screw 29 and the slot 30, there being a set screw 3| to get a. fine adjustment between the stud shafts 26 and 21. It is also desirable to permit one of the threaded wheels to move axially on its shaft a very short distance, and I find it convenient to provide the stud shaft 21 with a collar 32 which will permit slight axial movement. The wheel 24 may be mounted so as to turn upon its shaft 26, but --is preferably so arranged that it may not move axially on this shaft.

As indicated in Figs. 1 and 3, after the screws are threaded, they may pass intoa'guiding tube 33 which has an internal diameter 34 of such size that thescrews may turn as the rod stock is turned, the fit being sufficiently loose to permit free sliding movement of the screws in the tube.

As indicated in Fig. 4, the tubular member 33 is machined to fiat surfaces 35 for a small portion of its length, so that the edges 36 of the hubs 31 of the threading tool will clear the tubular member and permit the rollers 24 and 26 to reach the formed shank of the screw in the work area.

The tool 2|, as indicated in Fig. 2, is carried by a bracket 38 which has a rack 39 meshing with a gear segment 40 of a bell crank lever 4i, pivoted second arm 44 of a bell crank lever 45, pivoted at H and having a roller 46 engaging the cam 41. The cams l9 and 41 are both carried by a power shaft 50 so that as this shaft revolves, the shaping tool and the threading tools are operated in timed relation to first blank and then thread the screw. After each operation of threading and blanking, the rod stock R is automatically advanced the length of one screw, where the second operation takes place. It should be noted particularly that the screw being blanked and threaded lies adjacent a supporting chuck I and. in addition, the next adjacent screw which has been formed on the rod stock is supported by the tube 33. While this method of supporting the stock during the screw forming operation is perhaps always desirable, it is not necessary for certain size screws, although when extremely small screws are used, it is desirable to support the stock on both sides of that area which is being worked upon.

As a typical example -of a screw which can be successfully made by my improved method and machine, hexagonal stock may have a forming tool blank out the screwso that the-shank will be finished to .052 inch and the threading tools or wheels 25 and 24 may be provided with 90 threads to the inch, so that when these tools are brought into contact with the .052 inch stock,'

the finished threads will be rolled into the stock so that the outside diameter of the threads may be .060 inch in the finished screw. In other words, as these rollers approach the screw shank, they both form the metal inwardly and outward- 1y from the blanked size as the metal flows into the thread of the thread forming rollers The diameter of the rollers can be made any desired multiple of the desired thread on the screw shank, and I have found that for the screw referred to above, it is desimble to provide a threaded roller of .630 inch diameter having 12 leads.

As indicated above, the rod stock R is intermittently advanced, is blanked and threaded, and

at'42 and having an arm 43 engageable with a is advanced again into the supporting tube 33. This supporting tube may be carried by the usual turret head 5| which, however, is not used except as a support for the tube 33 which holds the screw stick in axial alignment with the rod stock R. While hexagonal stock is a convenient shape and is relatively inexpensive, any other shape of extruded stock maybe used, the shape of the stock determining the shape of the screw head.

As it is desirable to produce screw sticks having a predetermined number of units, I have provided an automatic cut-off in the form of a cutting tool 53, which is automatically operated to cut oi! the end screw of a screw stick after a predetermined number of screws have been formed. For instance, in Fig. 9, I have shown a screw stick as consisting of 25 screws, this being a convenient number for screws of a certain size. In order to cut off the twenty-fifth screw, the cut-off tool 53 is mounted so that it may be reciprocated by means of a rack 54, operable by a pinion 55 carried by a shaft 66. which, in turn, carries a pinion 61. This pinion may be operated by a rack 68 connected to a bell crank lever 88, pivoted on a shaft 10 and carrying a roller H, contacting with a cam 12. The cam 12 is attached to a gear I3, which meshes with a pinion 14, carried by the shaft If and attached to a gear 15. This gear meshes w th gear 16, which is attached to the shaft 50, so that the cut-off operating projection H on the cam 12 will reach the roller II to operate the cut-off knife 53 only once for every 25 operations performed by the shaping tool 6 and the threading tool 2|. Therefore, each time 25 screws have been formed on the rod stock, the cut-off tool 53 is advanced, and since this tool has a curved surface 18, the shape of the screw head H, it forms a head on the last screw of the stick. As the material is intermittently advanced, the screw sticks are shoved through the support 33 so that they may drop into a suitable receptacle 19 at the end of th tubular support 33.

With the machine described above, it is possible to make screws of various sizes quite rapidly and I have found that small screws of the dimensions mentioned above can readily be made one every three seconds.

It is possible, of course, to operate the machine at a higher speed when certain types of stock are being used, but for ordinary brass or nickel screws, such as are commonly used in watches, photographic shutters and other small work, I have found that'the speed mentioned above is a desirable one.

It will be noticed that the method of advancing screw stock intermittently to a station which supports the screw adjacent the blanking and threading tools and by supporting the stock'after the'screws have been formed thereon, presents only a relatively small area of the stock which may be worked upon. This is desirable because in small diameters, the stock cannot have much inherent strength and my method of guiding the threading rollers into place additionally reduces the strains which would beplaced upon the'frail material.

I have found that by utilizing the above described machine for making screw sticks, that very accurate threads can be produced and the screws can be held accurately to size and shape. One of the important features is that the neck portion N of the screw can be held accurately to size, which is important because in use, these screw sticks depend on the size at the neck for the firmness with which the screws are seated in the work, since such screws are used in a special type of screw driving apparatus which drives the screw entering the work through the narrow neck by the next adjacent screw head until the screw is firmly seated, after which further turning movement snaps off the neck between the driven and the driving screws. Such application of screws has many advantages because it not only insures that too much force is not applied to screws, which may strip the screw threads, but it also insures that the screw is properly seated, because otherwise, the neck cannot be snapped off.

I claim: a

1. In a machine for making screw sticks including a stock holding chuck and an intermittent stock advancing mechanism, the combination with awork supporting tube spaced from and coaxially aligned with the chuck, a. movably mounted forming tool for shaping a screw blank and threading tool each being so positioned thatsaid tools may be moved between the chuck and the coaxially arranged work support.

2. In a machine for making screw sticks ineluding a stock holding chuck and an intermittent stock advancing mechanism, the combination with a work supporting tube spaced from and coaxially aligned with the chuck, a movably 35 mounted forming tool for shaping a screw blank and neck, a pair otthreading rollers movably mounted with respect to the chuck, means for moving the forming tool and threading tool one after the other to and from work held by the chuck, a shaft for operating the tool moving means, the movable mounts for said forming tool and threading tool each being so positioned that said tools may be moved between the chuck and the coaxially arranged work support, and reduction gearing carried by the said shaft, a

cam driven by the reduction gearing, a cut oif tool mounted to reciprocate between the chuck and the coaxially arranged supporting tube and connections between the cut ofl tool and the last mentioned cam for operating the cut oi! tool after a predetermined number of screws are formed on the stick whereby the cut oil stick may be supported in the coaxially aligned tube.

3. In a machine for making screw sticks from rod stock including a chuck tor turning and intermittently advancing stock in predetermined steps, the combination with a shaping tool, a threading tool, a power driven shaft, cams on the shaft ior moving the shaping tool and then the threading tool into contact with the rod to shape 'and thread the screw, the shaping tool including a part for cutting a neck in the-rod tor connecting two screws formed in the stock, a cut oi! tool for cutting oil! a stick of a predetermined number of screws, means for reciprocating the cut oil tool from the power driven shaft including a cam. and reduction gears between the cam and power driven shaft.

' WILLIAM H. URE. 

